I’m suprised that I haven’t heard Neal Stphenson’s name mentioned.
What does everyone think of him?
I’ve never read him. What do you think? Should I? I’m not into cyber-SF but I like alternate histories, and SF where the emphasis is on the characters and societies(alien and human) rather than technology. Soft SF, I guess.
Where does Stephenson fit?
I though his first major book Snowcrash was a lot of fun. The intro is a hilarious spoof on every cypberpunk cliche in the business and then it got weird.
His second book The Diamond Age is a look at a future age, powered by nano-bots, but the culture has shifted back to Victorian morals/attitudes/behaviors.
I like his stuff a lot, but I like all types of SF, from LeGuin to Gernsback to Heinlein to Varley to etc…
If nothing else, the first chapter of Snowcrash makes it worth a look.
Fenris
I only read ‘The Diamond Age’, I keep meaning to read more by him but I always forget whenever I’m in the book store - I guess it’s the forgettable name.
I really loved ‘The Diamond Age’, wonderful book, incredible characters, incredible story, and enough strange ideas for a dozen books.
The problem with Neal Stephenson is that he can’t finish a book worth a damn (haven’t read Cryptonomicron yet so that may have changed). THe endings on everything else of his I have read sucked completely.
That is why I haven’t read Cryptonomicron.
I don’t remember Snow Crash being that bad; but The Diamond Age had quite the non sequitur of an ending. However, I find that when reading, it’s more about the journey than the end.
Holy crap, that’s a long sig.
Um, on to the subject at hand… I agree that the ending to The Diamond Age really, really sucked. Snow Crash, OTOH, provided quite a bit more closure and closed on a note very similar to the tone of the opening chapter, so I enjoyed it.
Cryptonomicon, FTR, is a much better book than anything of his I’ve read to date (still working on The Cobweb, and his other “Stephen Bury” cowritten novel, whose name eludes me at the moment). Cryptonomicon also, however, suffers from an ending that is flawed, though far less seriously, in some ways. I just wanted to say that (and damn, I’m taking a while to do it), Cryptonomicon is supposed to be the first of a trilogy, IIRC, so its ending should probably be cut just a tiny bit of slack.
I recently picked up Cryptonomicon, but seeing as it has distinct phone-book qualities to it; I’m going to wait until after exams to get into it.
The ending of Cryptonomicron was quite good, so he’s learning.